The Passenger

I put off playing this because I read a review that this game didn't lean very hard into you being an eldritch abomination and you spent a lot of time being utterly mundane doing mundane things- literally no idea what that reviewer was thinking and I feel obligated to clarify that while you are, exactly like the summary says, trapped in human flesh, you are always starkly aware of the fact that you are an eldritch abomination while you're in the middle of a horror movie, and it gives the game a perspective that's always interesting and never boring. Or maybe I'm just simple. Anyways, it does fun things with its premise and it's soooo freaking good. The game also has really good plot twists! It's good at having revelations sneak up on you, and has pretty good clarity for a game dealing with eldritch abominations. The beginning is what determines your stats, would recommend leaning hard into whatever attributes you want to have so you don't have middling stats like I did.

Roach my beloved..... If you're on the fence of buying or not, and you're looking for a cyoa with a little bit of everything-a fleshed out cast (as limited as the cast is but honestly I prefer that), a bit of spooky horror, the ability to either wreck humanity/be a goody-two-shoes/be something in between while running away from another big spooky enemy while mostly battling your newfound "fEeLINgz" or hatred for humanity, look no further. Seriously this cyoa is a gem and I just wish there was MORE. I just WISH THERE WAS MORE!!!! And while I'm sure the blatant favoritism towards one of the ROs will become obvious in the span of hmmmm the first five chapters I don't think there’s (spoilers ahead) [spoiler]anything more romantic than burying a corpse together and covering up the crime.[/spoiler] Seriously I was already head over heels for the RO by then but it just kept getting BETTER and again I reiterate the romance isn't the focus and other than the main RO the other romances don't nearly feel as fleshed out but WHO NEEDS A DIFFERENT RO WHEN YOU CAN HAVE THIS INSTEAD!!!!! Also the scene [spoiler]of Roach getting off the bus and running back to the MC saying they can't live 6 months without them literally killed me.[/spoiler] Don't worry folks, you can secure your happy ending OR let the world burn or whatever you wanna I guess. I was here for fluff (very unexpected given the premise I KNOW) and I got it. I got plenty of it. I JUST WISH THERE WAS MORE!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAA On a more serious note. This definitely felt more like reading a book with not very little but also not too many options regarding where to steer the course of the story (balanced, as all things should be) and I honestly didn't mind, but if you expect this to be some grand RPG with a dozen choices you'll be let down. If you're fine with reading a somewhat set story (again, it's your choice whether to be a goodie or a baddie or both) then def give it a try. I personally was blown away how well the plot unfolded and how the pacing was set, and again, it's not like you're VERY restricted. It's just that you're somewhat limited because you need to follow the path of the story to a certain extent (but again, I think the story gives PLENTY options to pick from). I WISH THERE WAS MOOOOORE

This is a very mixed recommendation, because this isn't a bad game, but if I still could I would refund it/wouldn't have bought it (it's not my kind of thing). So as to the good, this is well written, well paced, interesting, and is good about making use of the perspective of an eldritch creature living a human life. However, the bad is that the actual plot isn't really about you being an eldritch creature, but rather that you are hunted by one. Which is a perfectly valid story to tell, and I think the fact that you are yourself an eldritch creature helps to add intrigue/remove exposition. However, this game is very much selling this on playing as an eldritch creature, when the reality is that you being an inhuman *thing* in a human's skin is more of a plot convenience than a thing to actually get this game for. Definitely take this review with a grain of salt, as the expectation mismatch did cause me to lose interest in continuing this story pretty quickly, but once I got to a point where you are starting a cult and it *still* feels like you could swap out the protagonist for a normal human with minimal changes to the plot, it became clear that this game is not selling itself on what it is. TLDR: Not a bad story, but it isn't what it is selling itself on.

时长是离线的锅可忽略。目前最喜欢的一部IF，优缺点都挺明显的，感觉体验是否良好很大程度上取决于是否喜欢角色，如果是冲着恐怖元素或者人外主角来的话不一定会满意，但也在及格线上了，中规中矩的科幻微恐片。如果比较喜欢人外感更强烈一点的主角的话建议看论坛里的一篇叫1966的wip https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/1966-wip-244k-words-update-1-9-25-84k-words-mystery-romance-horror-lovecraftian-supernatural/171408 几个li和主角姐姐的人物塑造都挺不错，说话比较有活人感不会很像剧本人物，尤其喜欢姐姐，让苯人体会到正常sibling关系的美好所在，泪目了，对所有li的喜好度加在一起都比不过姐姐，Livvy 完全是理想中的姐姐了。 四个li按出场顺序分别是1. Fiama，带着一个男孩的年轻单身妈妈，热爱户外运动 2.Jonny，阴暗高个录像带男店员，和Fiama关系不好 3.Roach，神秘金发小个子，性别可选， 4.Horizon，后期主角调查密教的教主 性别可选 除了H和R的三人行路线没体验外，别的都走了一遍，能明显感觉到Roach是刻画得最像官配的那个。但说实话romance情节没日常有意思，最喜欢Roach，Johnny和主角凑在一起hang out的几个场景，很想看三人小团体拉上Fiama和Livvy一起玩party game。

sorry to livvy and mom for turning their sibling and child into a husk for me to inhabit and then leaving to go back to being a grand cosmic horror in the infinite universes after eating another cosmic horror, but frankly they're probably better off without my freaky ass.

A pretty long story that took me almost 5 hours to read through. You can go from calling humans disgusting to acting like one. Nice.

[h1][b]tl;dr[/b][/h1] The Passenger has become one of my favourite CYOA stories and one of the few that have genuinely made me cry. It's not a 10/10 story but it's certainly something I recommend people read at least once. [h1][b]Story[/b][/h1] [quote=]DARK TIMES ARE COMING WILL YOU BE ABLE TO SEE?[/quote] The Passenger revolves around the story of an eldritch horror running from another eldritch horror in a dog-eat-dog world. They find themselves weak and trapped in the casket of a puny human living and, for nearly thirty years, they've lived a remarkably unremarkable life. That is, until the Hunter catches up to its prey. Now, they must navigate their relationships while regaining their energy to hopefully fight back against the gaping maw breathing down their neck. The story is pretty much as I expected with the premise. There's a sense of unease and of fear throughout the story and I think the author managed to capture the atmosphere well. The touches with the font styles are appreciated as they add to it, especially in the style of CYOA. I do have some issues with the pacing of the story. There are times when it feels like there's no clear or cohesive transition from one scenario to another, or that there are scenarios added for the sake of introducing characters or including exposition. I think a tighter flow would have helped with these concerns and the disparity in focus for the side characters (mentioned in the Romance and Relationships section). [h1][b]Choices and Gameplay[/b][/h1] [quote=]Plan B it is then.[/quote] For a CYOA game, there's not really a lot of options available to you. You're given six main stats along with a tracker for your essence, but you generally only need to focus on your main defining factor (strength, speed or trickery) and at least two of your stats for interactions with others. You're also given the option of embracing humanity or staying true to your otherworldly roots, but the direction of the narrative and outcomes feel generally the same. There's not really much of a change in how you tackle certain things and nothing is really locked out or revealed to you based on your choices. I think this is most prominent if you choose to be more otherworldly since the story seems to be written for a human-focused main character who is kind despite being an eldritch horror. You can sometimes choose to be mean or not say anything, but in the sections where you're not given a choice, you'll revert back to this predetermined direction. This makes it feel more linear than other CYOA games. I like that the Relationship screen is more narrative in nature than just presenting a graph, but this has downsides of its own when the sentence describing your relationship with a character doesn't fully reflect where you both stand at that point in the story. A minor gripe as I still have more appreciation for the little quirks of characterisation it gives. [h1][b]Romance and Relationships[/b][/h1] [quote=]Well, it doesn't matter how you ended up as her [sister], the only thing that does is that you are.[/quote] Contrary to the romance-focused blurb about this story, I feel like the main relationship is with your sister, Livvy. The romances pale in comparison to how a humanity main character interacts with Livvy and your interactions with her during the climax of the story. When the Relationships tab says there's nothing Livvy wouldn't do for you, they aren't lying. It has been a really long time since I've last played a CYOA where the relationship with a character hit this hard, but at the end of The Passenger, I truly wanted nothing more than for my character and Livvy to be happy and together. Roach is very clearly the 'main' romance option in the game. You have the most interactions with them and they're the one who actually sees your character in some of their most significant moments. The other romance options are more like onlookers to your story, not quite growing alongside you in the same way Roach does. For me, this feels most prominent with Horizon who appears only in the latter half of the story and doesn't really get enough time to become significant to your character unless you seek them out on purpose. At the point you meet them, you likely have already made connections with the other romance options. I wish they were introduced earlier to put them in the same footing as others, or for the non-Roach romance options to not just seem like stragglers.